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From the beach of fine sand of Bello Horizonte, in some areas with particles that look like coal, and a few minutes away from the beginning of the airstrip of the Santa Marta airport, anchored ships may be seen, waiting to be filled with the mineral extracted some 250 kilometers south of the city, from the surface mines of the Department of Cesar. This is a landscape contemplated by tourists from several chain hotels on a beach of about two kilometers, while they take care of their children; they get a tan, or simply bath in the calm sea. Environmentalists and fishers attack the State for having allowed the tourist area of this colonial city, more than 25 years ago, to become a port for almost half of the 70 million tons of coal that the country exports, being the sixth supplier of coal in the world. They say that survival fishing was reduced and they lash out against what little the authorities have done about the pollution generated by hundreds of trucks that crowd the thin Caribbean Main Road, which connects the production centers with the Santa Marta docks, and that has to be shared by buses and vehicles, most of them transporting tourists. COAL THROUGH ACAPULCO "It’s as if they allowed coal to be exported from Acapulco," complained the Colombian expeditionary and environmentalist Francisco Ospina, who for five decades has strived for the preservation of the fauna and flora of the region, referring to the famous Mexican resort. Coal and tourism, which together contribute with 8 percent of Gross Internal Product (GIP) and generate more than six billion dollars must get along together, at least until when in the next few years the concessions for the use of the ports for exportation expire and they are relocated in areas with greater depth for the ships. The government answers saying that there are projects in progress to ensure that both activities, engines of the economical recovery of the country, develop without clashing, minimizing the environmental impact as much as possible and ensuring the life quality of the communities. Among other works, the construction of a two lane roadway bordering the tourist area is expected. Also a railway for a high capacity train with which to replace a great part of the fleet of around 3.000 heavy trucks and that have been responsible for a good part of the 43 dead and 212 wounded in 280 accidents occurred during 2007. Something similar to what Australia, Canada and other great mineral exporters of the world have achieved, being countries that attract millions of people. “We don’t just want to keep the two activities, it’s that we need them,” said Omar Diaz Granados, governor of the Department of Magdalena, where Santa Marta is located. Granados promotes a plan to take the aqueduct and sewer system to the countryside municipalities, thanks to the royalties for the use of the docks for the exportation of coal. WITHOUT SACRIFICES "Tourism development has not been sacrificed in the world for industrial development,” said the minister of Trade, Industry and Tourism, Luis Guillermo Plata, to Reuters. "This ministry, which regulates both activities, understands that the two can exist jointly. The Government has to be fair and equable,” he stated. On one hand, the investments anticipated for infrastructure for coal transportation reach over 400 million dollars in order to increase up to 100 million annual tons of exported mineral for 2010, said Hernán Martínez, the minister of Mines and Energy, to Reuters. On the other hand, the investments in modernization and creation of hotel infrastructure of the region reach 150 million dollars for the next 3 years, according to the president of the Magdalena regional office of the Hotel Corporation of Colombia (COTELCO), Omar García. "Both industries can coexist. Both industries can have mutual respect and generate income for the less favored classes, said García. But, according to Captain Ospina, there seem to be no mourners for the hundreds of fishermen of the Bello Horizonte beach and surroundings of the exportation docks, who decades ago could live exclusively from the activity. Fishermen like Gilberto González, who sustains a fishing net on his weathered shoulder while he watches the two coal ships on the horizon, grieving over the little chances to feed his family. Reuters |
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